Invisible: How to see through lies

By Sally Adee

Emotional tells work, but not in the way you might think (Image&colon; Alex Webb/Magnum Photos)

From liar’s smirk to telltale pupils, your face is the blind spot that betrays you

Whether it’s Pinocchio’s nose, poker tells or fictional detectives who solve a crime after being tipped off by the flicker of someone’s eyebrow, much has been made of the messages written across our faces. They are the vulnerable spots that we alone can’t see, but which can broadcast our feelings to those around us.

In reality, people can’t be read as easily as popular culture would have us believe. “No verbal or non-verbal behaviours will be Pinocchio’s nose,” says Leanne ten Brinke of the University of California, Berkeley, who studies body language. Instead, we should look for collections of cues.

People often find it easier to fake positive emotions than negative ones, because they involve only two muscles&colon; the zygomaticus major, which helps curl the mouth when we smile, and the orbicularis oculi that crinkles the skin around the eyes into crow’s feet. If you want to catch someone out, better to look for crocodile tears. In a landmark study last year, ten Brinke and her team asked volunteers to tell two stories&colon; one about an incident they regretted, and one about an incident they didn’t. Then they were told to convincingly pretend to regret the latter.

Their disingenuous expressions yielded a treasure trove of tells. “Facial muscles that should have been engaged were suspiciously absent,” says ten Brinke. Looking sad involves the contraction of complex, involuntary muscles in the forehead. Such movements proved too challenging for the subjects, and ...

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